Field Notes · Food & Game
An old cock pheasant, a knobbly root and two and a half hours of patience.
Cooking the bag
A game cart at the end of the day is a ledger. Everything that happened is laid out in a row, and the question of what happens next has passed quietly from the field to the kitchen. I take a professional interest in both.
The cock pheasant is the easiest bird on the cart to name: copper, bottle-green and far too long in the tail to be missed. The hen, in her browns, is better dressed for staying alive. Some say the Romans brought them to Britain. I note the “some” and leave it there.
Young or old?
The kitchen needs one answer first: how old is the bird? Angela Humphreys, writing on game cookery in Complete Rough Shoot, points to the legs. A young cock has rounded spurs that sharpen with age; on a hen, feet that begin supple and grow coarse. Hanging comes next: about three days in warm weather, up to a fortnight in cold.
Young birds earn the showy treatment, roasted and sent out with bacon rolls, fried breadcrumbs or game chips. Old birds do not. By January the bag is heavy with mature cocks, because the hens are spared to stock the next season. Roast one of those and you will learn a good deal about perseverance.
The patient answer
Her answer for the old cock is slow cooking, with a root I would not have looked at twice. Celeriac tastes of celery, cooks beside the bird and is then blended to thicken the sauce. No flour, only time.
Pheasant with celeriac sauce (serves 4)
- 1 mature cock pheasant
- 675g (1½lb) celeriac, peeled and sliced
- 300ml (½pt) chicken stock
- 150ml (¼pt) white wine
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4tbsp single cream
- Salt and black pepper
- 225g (8oz) fromage frais
- Chopped chives
- Sit the bird breast down in a flameproof casserole with the stock, wine, garlic and seasoning. Cook at 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3 for 1½ hours.
- Lift out the bird and add the celeriac. When it is cool enough, take the breast off in large pieces and keep the legs and wings whole.
- Return the meat and cook for about an hour more, until the celeriac is tender. Keep the meat warm in a shallow dish.
- Purée the celeriac, return it with the cream, warm gently and season.
- Stir the chives into the fromage frais. Spoon the sauce over the meat and serve with glazed carrots and jacket potatoes topped with the fromage frais.
It is a recipe that rewards a bird for surviving several seasons, which seems fair. Whether the bird would agree is another question.
Image credits: [shared credit to confirm]. Recipe adapted from Angela Humphreys, “From Bag to Table”, in Complete Rough Shoot.